By Guy Page
Vermont Democrat delegates to the national convention met “in an informal meeting” Monday, July 22 to unanimously endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee for president, according to a statement by the Vermont Democratic Party.
The party chair portrayed the endorsement as the culmination of two days of grassroots support. However, both GOP Chair Paul Dame and BLM have said Harris is being forced on Democratic voters by the party leadership.
“We’ve heard an outpouring of support from Vermonters across the state for Vice President Harris in the last day and a half,” said VDP Chair David Glidden, 29, a St. Albans LGBTQ youth advocate for Outright Vermont. “Our phones have been ringing off the hook with a record number of people signing up to volunteer to elect Democrats up and down the ticket in November. I’m proud to be a part of such an historic moment.”
At the VDP’s May 18 state convention, nearly 400 Democrats from around Vermont gathered and elected 11 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, and that group in turn finalized the slate with five more in June, Glidden said in a July 22 statement.
In public statements this week, the delegates hit the key talking points already established for the Harris campaign: youth, abortion rights, her experience prosecuting sex abusers, and the Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Project.
“Those delegates met in an informal meeting tonight to discuss the current state of the Presidential race and decided as a group to lend their voices to the chorus cheering Vice President Harris on,” Glidden said.
The meeting was held virtually, with 14 of Vermont’s 16 pledged delegates in attendance, and two more indicating support for Harris by text, according to a VTDigger report.
Glidden is not the only youthful delegate representing Vermont, one of the oldest states in the U.S.
“As one of the youngest delegates in America, I am thrilled at the prospect of Vice President Kamala Harris running for President,” said homelessness support advocate Addie Lentzner of Bennington, a recent high school graduate. “I fully support her nomination, and I look forward to following her lead to put Trump’s Project 2025 in the trash bin, making these next few months – and next four years – empowering and transformative for America.”
“Reproductive rights are on the ballot this year and there is no better standard bearer than Vice President Harris,” said Thea Wurzburg of Winooski, another young person and former Welch staffer and airplane manufacturer BETA employee Thea Wurzburg. “I’m ready to defeat Trump’s extremist agenda that would turn back the clock on so many of our fundamental rights, and finally elect our first woman president.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris have led one of the most successful and accomplished administrations in the modern history of America,” said CD Mattison, a delegate from Burlington and unsuccessful candidate for mayor this year. “American democracy is under threat with the Republican commitment to Project 2025. Vice President Kamala Harris has proven that she knows how to deliver against perpetrators and predators at all levels. She’s ready to prosecute the case against Donald Trump and win for the American people.”
Other voting delegates to the convention in Chicago next month include Howard Dean, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch, Rep. Becca Balint, Vice-Chair and Vermont Historical Society staffer Amanda Gustin, Staffer for House Speaker Jill Krowinski Molly Moore, former staffer for Mayor Miro Weinberger Samantha Sheehan, and Balint staffer and campaign aide Peter Trombley.
GOP chair recalls VP’s uninspiring run for president in 2020
In his commentary following Pres. Biden’s announcement he would not seek another term, GOP Chair Paul Dame called Harris “an unbelievably terrible candidate” during her 2002 presidential run.
“When she ran in 2020 Kamala Harris received her only positive attention when she hit Joe Biden hard in a debate for being a racist segregationist. But ultimately, she was seen by Democrats as an unbelievably terrible candidate who had such little support among Democrats that she was forced out of the race before the first vote was cast. Her own fundraisers had trouble convincing donors to support her,” Dame said.
He noted that Harris was doomed after her exchange with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard who pointed out that:
-Harris imprisoned over 1500 Californians for marijuana use, then laughed about it when asked if she had ever smoked herself;
-Harris blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from Death Row;
-Harris kept people in prison beyond their sentences.
Dame also questioned the national Democratic leadership’s apparent fait accompli of Harris as the presumptive candidate.
“Democrats saw her and rejected her in the last election – now they are being forced to accept the once-failed candidate. There are few things more anti-democratic than the situation Democrats have put their own voters in,” Dame said.
Much of the content in this story was sourced directly from statements provided by the Vermont Democratic Party and the Vermont Republican Party.